Hillary Clinton ends historic race, strongly endorses Barack Obama

Putting an end to her campaign to be the first woman president, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today enthusiastically endorsed her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, praising his determination and calling on her supporters to fight for his election.

Criticized earlier in the week for failing to make a gracious exit, Clinton tried to send a different message today, finally saying what Obama backers have wanted to hear for weeks.

“Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been,” Clinton said. “We have to work together. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure Sen. Obama is our next president. I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort.”

Repeatedly throughout the speech, the New York senator highlighted the historic nature of her candidacy, the strongest run for the nomination of a major party by a female candidate. Making a reference to her vote total over the course of the campaign, Clinton said she hoped that she had made “18 million” cracks in the glass ceiling preventing women from becoming president. And she said she hoped she had made the path to the presidency a little easier for the next female candidate for president.

“You can so be proud that from now on it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories,” Clinton said. “Unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee. Unremarkable to think a woman could be president of the United States. And that is truly remarkable, my friends.”

Clinton said that she would fight to lower barriers that women still faced.

“Like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there. I want to build an America that embraces the potential of every last one of us,” she said.

Clinton also, albeit briefly, acknowledged Obama’s achievement in becoming the first black major party nominee for the presidency.

“Together Sen. Obama and I achieved milestones essential to our progress as a nation, part of our perpetual duty to form a more perfect union,” Clinton said.

Several thousand people crowded into the National Building Museum in Washington to hear Clinton end her candidacy. While she seemed excited and happy delivering her speech, it was clearly a bittersweet moment.

“Well, this isn’t exactly the party I planned,” Clinton said to open her remarks, “but I sure like the company.”

This year’s Democratic nominating contest was one of the closest in a generation or more, ending only when the Illinois senator secured a majority of the delegates after the final two states, Montana and South Dakota, voted Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, Clinton at first resisted ending her campaign. In her speech after the Montana and South Dakota primaries, she refused to concede defeat to Obama and instead insisted she remained the more electable candidate.

That initial refusal to exit prompted prominent Democratic backers of Clinton, such as Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), to increase the pressure on Clinton to bow out. Today, Clinton strove to sound more conciliatory.

Clinton was accompanied by her husband, former President Clinton, and daughter Chelsea.

Technically, Clinton suspended her campaign and did not formally give up her candidacy. The move allows her to keep her delegates, continue fundraising to pay off her debt and may ensure her a more prominent role at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

When the campaign season began, Clinton was the front-runner for the nomination. Many pundits predicted her fundraising prowess and her husband’s political organizing ability would be nearly impossible to beat.

To the surprise of many, Bill Clinton showed a penchant for campaign gaffes and seemed in the end to be a liability. And as good as Clinton’s fund-raising was, she was outpaced by Obama’s ability to bring in millions from small donors.

Obama defeated Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, but then saw Clinton come from behind in the New Hampshire primary.

But throughout the remainder of the campaign, Clinton made crucial missteps by focusing primarily on primaries in populous states. The strategy gave Obama an opening to rack up what turned out to be an insurmountable delegate lead by dominating small-state contests and caucuses. In those states, Obama’s superior campaign organization proved adept at turning out his backers and signing up new voters.

Despite victories by Clinton in many of the final primary campaigns, the Democratic party’s delegate apportionment rules allowed Obama to continue to add to his delegate total.

What is next for Clinton still remains unclear. Earlier in the week, she and her supporters privately signaled that Obama should offer her the vice presidential spot on the ticket. But Obama supporters have resisted that call, arguing that there are other candidates who would make for a stronger ticket.

Clinton and Obama met Thursday at the home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The details of the private conversation are not known. But Clinton is expected to help Obama raise money for the general election, while he in turn is likely to help her retire her substantial campaign debt.

But one result of that meeting was today’s speech, a carefully scripted end of the campaign that was designed to send a message of party unity. Before Clinton arrived, her campaign played songs like “We Are Family.”

“We all know this has been a tough fight but the Democratic Party is a family,” Clinton said in the speech. “Today our paths have merged.”

 julian.barnes@latimes.com